University commended for its work on student inclusion

Aberdeen University has received a commendation for supporting its increasingly-diverse student population.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) sent over five independent experts earlier in the academic year, who have heaped high praise on the university for five areas.

These included its partnership work with students, a focus on widening access to higher education and the development of self-evaluation processes.

QAA said the strong links between the university’s Aberdeen and Doha campuses were also highly beneficial to students’ experiences.

It made a number of recommendations as well, however.

A total of seven issues were flagged, such as ensuring personal tutor arrangements are fit for purpose and a need to reflect on how external examiners are trained.

Professor Peter McGeorge, Aberdeen University vice-principal of education, said: “We are constantly striving to improve the quality of learning and experience of our students and to improve access to higher education.

“It is great to see that the hard work of our staff and students has been recognised in the QAA reports. “

He added: “As a university that is open to all, we have recently pledged to double the number of students coming from Scotland’s most deprived areas.

“Consequently, it is particularly pleasing to see our work on widening participation commended by QAA.”